First Official Weigh In

It’s official. I’ve lost weight! To the people I see everyday, this comes as no surprise, but for some reason this is a shocker for me. I’ve been weighing myself on a semi-regular basis at home for a few months now and my weight hasn’t fluctuated very much, clearly my scale is not working at home.

Yesterday, I went to the doctor to get my knee checked out because it has been bothering me from the numerous falls (more about that later). I used the visit as an official weigh in day so that I can get an accurate reading of the weight I was in October to compare against my current weight. Drum roll please….! I’ve lost about 15 pounds, shout out to..... me! It probably doesn’t sound like much since it’s over such a long period of time, but I’ve gained a lot of muscle weight in these last few months.

I’m really excited and motivated by this as it is a confirmation of my hard work and commitment. I’ve been asked about my weight change several times over these last few months and I am pleased to say that I am motivated by my figure skating endeavors. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it will be easier to “jump” if I’m lighter and stronger.

Over these last few months I’ve done a good job of slowly cutting the “crap” out of my diet. I’ve been taking pictures of several of my meals over the last few weeks and I’ll be sharing more details about my diet soon.

Now, back to the doctor’s appointment. I visited the doctor because I noticed that my knees started to make “clicking” noises when I bent them. This worried me because I thought something was torn, I've taken numerous falls on my knees at this point, who knows what's going on down there? I also feel a significant amount of pain when I am exercising/moving around a lot. I’ve confirmed that nothing is torn/broken, but I need to continue wearing the brace for extra support and I need to do some exercises to strengthen the muscles around my knees. Good times. I had a friend (in residency) check out my knee before this official visit and she told me I’d probably have to stay off the ice for a couple weeks, thankfully this is not the case. So, I can continue doing what I love: being on the ice <3

I'm Not Dying From The Pain!

Well ladies and gentlemen, the day has finally come! I was on the ice for three hours yesterday and this morning I didn’t wake up sore. Now, if you’ve been keeping up with my posts, then you probably know that on my three hour ice days I can barely move when I get home and I have trouble getting up on the following day. Last week I had a three hour day and my muscles were sore through the weekend. 

This is a huge accomplishment for me! I did a few things differently yesterday and I believe they greatly impacted my health following a difficult session. I drank a ton of water, I kept my body moving, I ate right after practice, and I went to a yoga class at night. 

A few days ago, I was reading up on figure skating nutrition and I learned a few new things. Not surprisingly, water was at the top of the list. In order for muscles to recover fully after a workout, you have you hydrate, a lot! Yesterday, I drank 64 oz of water in the time between my practice and bedtime. The second thing I did differently was kept my body moving. Usually after these practice sessions all I want to do is sleep and while this was still true yesterday, I kept myself from napping. But mostly because I had to get to my second job. There I walked, jumped, jogged, and stretched with the kids on the playground. Despite my lack of energy I kept it up and felt like I wasn’t dying, so that was a good sign! On the nutrition site, they also mentioned that eating was very important right after a session. So I packed myself a healthy snack and ate on my way home. It consisted of low-fat string cheese (1), almonds (10), triscuit wheat thins (15), and a small bag of carrots. When I got home I was still hungry so I had yogurt and a piece of wheat bread with crunchy peanut butter.  The last thing that I believe made the biggest change for me today was the yoga. 

I attended my first yoga class at my gym. I have never before done yoga in a class like this. Now on to the experience itself, it was meh. I felt lost for a quarter of the time. I was tired. I had to keep looking around to get clues from other people, and it was really humid in the room (on purpose). Following this learning experience, I felt amazing. My body was restored, my muscles felt “fresh” and once again - I didn’t feel like death! 

I went home, ate a salad, and was passed out by 9:45. I slept really well, like really really well and woke up feeling refreshed and ready to take on another day. I am so happy that I made this progress because I feel like my body is ready to get back on the ice for another long session today.

Diet and Exercise

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I re-started my Lifetime Gym Membership. Figure Skating has become my motivation for the gym. I am also really lucky to have my best friend right by my side, pushing me to do my absolute best.

A few years ago I lost a ton of weight and dropped 3 dress sizes, I was comfortable wearing a bikini on the beach and I felt great. My motivation back then? To impress and feel my best. Unfortunately, in the last couple years I’ve gained the weight back. Between school and work I had little time to exercise and frankly I lost my motivation. As soon as I began skating I knew that if I wanted to get better (and do jumps) I had to get in shape. Slowly I began making changes in my diet and I restarted my gym membership. In the early stages, I had many cheat days: pizza, soda, and chocolate! Who knew I’d join the “chocolate club” as soon as I started to care? I hated chocolate before and now it’s like a delicacy. When I learned the waltz jump I knew that I couldn’t cheat anymore. I didn’t think that I would start jumping on the ice for at least another year so I had time to get in shape, little did I know that it was go time. Things got serious quickly.

I had been doing exercises at home, but I wanted to get on my magic machine [basically what I refer to as an elliptical on steroids (Precor: Adaptive Motion Trainer with Open Stride)]. I call it the magic machine because it’s a cardio workout I can do without feeling like crap, I can get my heart rate up where I need it to be comfortably and for long periods of time for maximum gain. In addition there’s a good amount of resistance that I can add which makes the movements more strenuous. When I am at the gym I usually start out by doing 15 minutes of cardio, as I continue going to the gym this time usually increases in increments of five. After Cardio, I move on to weights. I work on my arms (100 reps total, between 40-50 pounds to start), then my quads (25 reps x 2), abs (100 reps total, 50 at 60 lbs, 50 at home), then I get back to legs (100 reps total on 3 different machines).  If I have extra time I work on my calves and glutes, then to arms again). After weights I head back to cardio on my magic machine, 10 minutes to start, then as I continue going I usually bump up the time in increments of five. Finally, I stretch. Sometimes I’ll throw in a couple 30 second planks and yoga, it really depends on time.

As far as my diet goes, it is really difficult. Like I said, now that I’m in the early stages of jumping I feel like I need to lose weight and get stronger very quickly. I can’t make the jumps I want to be doing...like flips and loops until I lose some weight. This means that soda needs to be completely eliminated from my diet… for good. Soda has been my most difficult challenge in this endeavor. It is like the outlier in my life, I try to eat foods that aren’t processed often, I tend to overcome pain and the common cold using natural remedies like elderberry and essential oils...but then I drink soda? I know it is by far one of the very worst things you can put in your body, I am aware, yet it continues to challenge me.

The diet itself isn’t anything specific, motto “don’t put crap in your body”. I am eating lots of protein, mostly grilled chicken. Less carbs. More vegetables (aka lovely salads). Lucky for me I don’t like cheese very much and I don’t eat red meat more than once every two weeks, so they aren’t really a problem for me. I definately make choices that others might avoid on a diet, such as butter and real sugar. I’d rather have the “real” thing in both cases rather than the processed alternatives.

I don’t eat late at night and I try to have a light dinner (heavier lunch). If I eat most of my protein during lunch I have more energy later in the day and I have time to burn it off while exercising. Lighter dinners are great for nighttime workouts and good sleep. I hate snacking, but sometimes when I am dieting I make myself snack so that my meals are more frequent. I choose to either have yogurt or vegetables (usually carrots & celery).

I’ve posted the specifics of my diet and exercise plan for a few reasons. First and foremost I need it as a reference. In a few months I’ll update it and get to see my progress. Second, those who want to use it as a reference can! I’ve had a lot of success with this plan in the past, I know that it works for my body, hopefully it will for you too - should you choose to take this step.